13 (40)

Louis continued to raise his speed. It was half again as fast as before. The sound of the ground shaking was enough to drown out the sound of rain. The raindrops grew thicker. Boom! It was the sound of thunder, which had struck once earlier and had not struck even once since.

It was as if it was urging them to see this through to the end. The one enjoying this the most right now must have been the god watching from the sky. In Louis’s field of vision as he ran at the front, infantrymen wearing armor finally appeared. It was not just one or two. They were piled up, as if they were hoping to be attacked. They had come in such a hurry that their lines were crushed, and square formation was a luxury.

They keep bursting one after another. It was an unexpected gain from the plan. Louis gave a small laugh. Gregory, who had belatedly noticed that Louis’s cavalry numbers were not ordinary, had sent an infantry unit to rescue his cavalry. When the infantry saw Louis’s light cavalry surging in like waves, chaos broke out.

Men who threw away their weapons and fled to the side. Officers waving their hands and raising their voices, telling them to form a square. Men awkwardly raising spear shafts but trembling. Men stepping backward. Even without checking through the information window, he could tell their morale had been shattered. Cavalry against cavalry had been somewhat difficult, but a split infantry unit was nothing. Thunder struck again. Boom!

Louis raised his speed even more. To keep up with the faster Louis, the roughly 1,300 cavalrymen lined up and raised their speed. He drew his longsword, which had not yet cooled, at an angle. Thanks to the friction with the air, the longsword trembled, but when he infused it with mana, even the slightest movement abruptly stopped. The infantry before his eyes grew closer and closer. The infantrymen’s eyes were wide, and their mouths were open.

Crunch! After sending an infantryman flying, Louis cut in every direction and dug inside. Whether it was a head or a skull, any part caught by the longsword spurted red streams of blood. The sound of the cavalry smashing the infantry made the sound of rain vanish again. At that moment, a mage in front of Louis thrust out his staff and shouted. The crystal glowed blue.

Louis instinctively drove his horse to the side and avoided the blue lump. A cavalryman behind him was struck by the lump, and his neck and face froze over. Louis heard the sound of him toppling. Louis immediately grabbed his bow and fired one shot at the mage. It struck him in the chest. He scattered red blood.

As if that was not enough, he flew far backward. He tangled with two or three soldiers behind him and did not even twitch. The surroundings, which had been full of enemies for a moment, were somehow filled with Louis’s cavalry. The ground looked red because of the blood.

The sounds of rough resistance soon changed into groans, and even those were cut off. Louis looked at the surroundings as they were being cleaned up. The cavalry was persistently stabbing spears into infantrymen pretending to be dead one by one. There were still those resisting. Three cavalrymen were persistently attacking one warrior.

Their spears attacked his back and neck one after another. His legs were unsteady, and mana surged from him, but he looked clearly exhausted. Perhaps because of the rain, he looked like a moth being battered around. His aura also flickered faintly. He had reached his limit.

The chiliarch’s helmet popped up with a thud. One cavalryman fell, and the exposed forehead was full of blood. The phrase “mutual destruction” suited it. Metal pierced several times through the fallen chiliarch. His mana disappeared, and his aura disappeared as well. He was silent as a dead mouse.

‘He’s not a Sword Expert. There were no Sword Experts among these. And among the cavalry, there had only been one famous person too. From now on is the real thing.’

Louis recalled the beetle-like man who had driven Anok into a corner. His cheek had been pierced by Louis’s arrow, and his head had been sent flying just like that. Since there was no time to delay, he raised his hand high and shouted, “Reorganize!”

His voice filled with intense mana was evenly delivered in every direction. The cavalry showed shocked expressions at the fact that Louis was not exhausted, then simultaneously looked relieved and began lining up while catching their breath.

There were still quite a few infantrymen alive on the ground, but they were lucky. When Louis’s horse ran ahead, the cavalry again followed in a tail behind him. Their numbers were similar to before. Considering the number of infantrymen who had just died, it was a level that could be considered a perfect victory.

“What…. What is this?”

Unable to stand watching any longer, the chiliarch climbed onto the deck. The problem was that the flames did not work because of the rain. Since each force he sent did not come back, he could not endure it anymore and climbed up. The situation was extremely chaotic. The river crossing had succeeded. The temporary bridges had connected, and troops were pouring in like a current.

At the front, infantry and infantry were engaged in a contest of strength. From the rear, retreat signals had been coming since earlier, as if something was happening. He knew that Duke Louis had done something. It was frightening that he understood it. Although various things were happening one way or another, what was even more pathetic was that they had lost a considerable number of infantry squads to a single transport ship before his eyes.

Two centurions. The number who had gone up and died alone was two hundred. The smell of rain clogged his nose, but the sight spread before his eyes was absurd. Around one hundred and seventy corpses were rolling around like trash, and there was one warrior dragging around like a dog the centurion who had gone up confidently. A killing intent so intense that it made his bones ache.

He swallowed without realizing it. His legs stiffened, and his voice was blocked. The warrior clearly looked exhausted, but he could not bring himself to rush in. The pretty-looking warrior was crushing the centurion’s eyes one by one with a dagger. It did not take long before the two disappeared.

“Graaagh!!!!”

“How boring…. What’s wrong? Screaming from only this much…. You said you would entertain me.”

“S-spare…. spare…. spare me!”

The chiliarch reacted to his groan and barely managed to say one sentence.

“Th-this…. Haswen….”

Hearing the voice, he looked at the chiliarch. Half his face was covered in blood, which was paradoxical considering the rain now falling. He had literally committed a massacre. The chiliarch looked into his eyes for three seconds, but now he could no longer look.

Moreover, when he muttered, “Hey, do you know how to use a little strength?” the chiliarch was terrified. Not only was his mind paralyzed, he had already lost the will to fight. As he felt the overwhelming difference in power and his legs trembled, the warrior spun the dagger in his left hand.

He drove the dagger into the shoulder blade and ripped it straight down. Then he grabbed the man’s hair and threw him to the ground. As he placed his foot on the head of the centurion, who was convulsing from the heavy impact, and pressed down slowly while saying, “You’re next,” the chiliarch could no longer endure it.

“Wh-what do we do!”

“Attack. Attack! He’s tired! He’s tired!!!”

The troops the chiliarch had brought did not even number a hundred. However, even that seemed insufficient. When he shouted that, the soldiers began taking one hesitant step forward at a time. The contact point with Mihoff was soon reached, and before long, it was filled with the sound of flesh bursting. The chiliarch did not even listen to all of this sound and quietly slipped backward. The infantrymen waiting below asked him what had happened.

“We retreat. Pull back from the front immediately and assist Marquis Gregory.”

When the soldiers realized that their commander had fled before Mihoff had even cut down ten men, they jumped down to both sides. The men behind them were even throwing away their weapons and running. She caught her breath and thought that it was a little tiring.

Still, it was extremely enjoyable. She felt as if all the murderous desire that had built up over several months had been released. Participating in the battlefield was good, but the toys overflowing here were also good. Wounded soldiers were rolling around here and there. It seemed there was only one person she could play with.

No matter how much she played with ordinary soldiers, it was not enough. The chiliarch she had just seen was only a chiliarch in name; he had less mana than a centurion. There was no need to catch someone like that. The one who could excite her was crawling on the floor right now. She also thought she had made a slight mistake.

She could have played for a few more minutes, but because she had been a little hasty, there were many wounds. Mihoff had a regretful expression. The man still seemed to have strength left, as he was diligently looking for a place to escape. Mihoff lightly kicked him with her foot. He flipped over like a turtle. A dagger deeply embedded in his left shoulder could be seen.

When she pulled it out, blood gushed out. She cut his Adam’s apple and rose from the spot. The surroundings were terribly quiet. It had an atmosphere as if a ghost might appear. Mihoff plopped down. Her mood was absolutely incredible. It felt as if something fundamental was being filled. And when even that thought came to her, she suddenly came to her senses. Louis, her other foundation, came to mind.

“Ah…. I was too drunk on it. I should recover and catch up.”

She began circulating mana.

“It’s Duke Louis’s cavalry!!!”

“Make a square formation!!!”

“Orders!!!”

“Respond!!!”

At the center of the chaos was Louis. The cavalry had already struck the infantry unit. More precisely, they had struck the rear. Gregory was not an idiot. Knowing that the situation was becoming sharply unfavorable, he took a dense formation. It meant he would stay gathered rather than attack this and that.

His infantry, archers, mages, and warriors were all gathered in one mass. The engagement had already begun. Louis had already cut down about six men at the front. Spear shafts were rising like thorns. He could see Gregory commanding from farther back. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was pale as a sheet of paper.

It might have been because of the rain. The guards beside him were all clearly Sword Experts at a glance. It looked difficult to break through easily. Even farther back, he could see a rain of arrows filling the sky. Lumps of mana were flying here and there, and numerous transport ships and bridges could be seen.

From there, troops kept pushing in. There was no need to look at the information window. Even with the naked eye, he could confirm that Gregory’s troops were completely deployed. At that moment, Louis’s senses felt an ominous feeling that could not even be confirmed by mana. Since something bothered him, he pulled hard on the reins.

The horse raised its back, and a thick arrow lodged right in the center. Not only was it sufficiently loaded with mana, the arrow was not an ordinary arrow either. It was a steel arrow, probably twice as long. Stepping on the horse that had rolled its eyes and collapsed to the ground, Louis landed on the ground.

Something bothered him as he narrowed his eyes. He discovered a man wearing a hood and feathered hat on a watchtower made of roughly stacked wooden pillars. He was measuring the next arrow. The bow was also not an ordinary size. Seeing mana surging from him, he was surely at the level of a Sword Expert.

As the bowstring slowly bent and aimed again, his eyes met Louis’s, and he bit his tongue. He had gotten goosebumps because Louis had accurately discovered him from an enormous distance. Moreover, for someone who had crushed two units, Louis was far too full of mana. Since he had unknowingly made a mistake with the arrow, he had no choice but to aim again. However, from that position, he could no longer snipe Louis.

“Your Grace, are you all right!!”

As soon as the incident occurred, ten cavalrymen near Louis densely surrounded him. Killing intent overflowed, and if they could not find the location, their will to block the arrows with their bodies could be seen. Louis gestured with his chin and said,

“An archer at the level of a Sword Expert.”

When he even told them the direction, every cavalryman’s face turned toward the watchtower. However, even the watchtower itself could not be seen easily. It was because the rain was falling too heavily, the spears rising here and there were bothersome, and even steam was rising due to the magic being unleashed by mages all over the place.